


barbed wire mouth

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dangan Ronpa Fusion, Despair Disease (Dangan Ronpa), Gen, Implied Crush, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Pre-Relationship, SDR2 - Third Trial Setting, Spying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25834156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: As if being trapped on a murder island weren't bad enough, Inigo comes down with a sickness that makes him as bold as he is cruel; Xander, regrettably, has volunteered to watch over him.(A snippet from a full SDR2 AU I'll never write.)
Relationships: Lazward | Laslow/Marx | Xander
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	barbed wire mouth

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in a while, so here's a short fic that I cleaned up from my drafts a little to make up for that.
> 
> NOTE: Takes place during the third-trial chapter of Super Dangan Ronpa 2.

“Hey, be honest with me,” Inigo said. “How does it feel to know your brother is _so_ sick, and you can’t do anything about it? Especially since you’ve been pretty much no help preventing the other two murders so far. It must burn to be that useless, right? Do you think you can actually _do_ anything to protect your family, or are you just telling yourself that you can?”

Xander squared his jaw and squeezed the water out of the rag with a little more force than necessary.

He pointedly reminded himself that this wasn’t the real Inigo talking, that it would be childish to sink down to the level of someone so obviously sickly and confused—and that snapping back would just encourage the newfound sadist in Inigo as well.

“How are you feeling?” he asked instead.

“I’m great!” Inigo lied, fever sweat glistening on his forehead. He didn’t wiggle away when Xander placed the cold cloth on his forehead, although Xander did have to bat away his weak, grabby hands. “I bet you can’t say the same, though Hey, didn’t you say that you can’t swim? How does it feel to be stuck on an island where you could drown at any time? Assuming someone else doesn’t kill you first.”

Xander didn’t bother to reply.

“Oh! Or maybe they’ll kill you by drowning! That’d be pretty easy, right?”

He gritted his teeth.

_Despair Disease_ , Grima had called it. A sickness as ridiculous as it was rare. It apparently manifested in a unique manner in every person it infected. Elsewhere in the hospital, a strangely sloppy Subaki and an unnaturally polite Peri were battling their own fevers, as was Xander’s newly clingy brother.

The only reason he was with Inigo right now instead of anywhere else was because Leo had fallen asleep an hour earlier, and Xander didn’t want to disturb his rest. Besides, Flora had two other patients to look after. Xander could do this much for her. He had volunteered to go to the hospital on his own accord, after all. It would have been rude at best to abandon her now.

And although Owain’s newfound black eye could attest to the fact Inigo had suddenly become ruder and more belligerent than anyone else Xander had ever had the misfortune of meeting, he still deserved help.

His only solace at the moment was the thought of how mortified Inigo would be when he recovered. Xander thought himself above gloating, but he could quietly admit to himself that he was really looking forward to Inigo’s future apologies. Some shame might even do the man some good. He could do with a slice of humble pie, as Camilla might have said.

“Why so quiet?” Inigo complained. He squirmed on the hospital bed. The rag fell off his forehead, which Xander annoyingly had to readjust. “Gosh, you’re _boring_. No wonder Camilla and Leo have been hanging out with everyone except you recently.”

“Stop lying,” Xander snapped without thinking. He instantly regretted breaking his silence.

Inigo sat up eagerly, a drop of water from the rag sliding down his temple. “Oh, he speaks! And here I was wondering if you’d swallowed your tongue.”

Xander sighed and stood up.

“If you don’t need anything else, I’ll be going. Someone will be back to check on you later.”

“Oh, but I do need something!” Despite the way Inigo weakly swayed with exhaustion, his voice sounded excruciatingly loud in the empty hospital room. “I _need_ you to tell me why you were watching me practice the other day. You didn’t even announce yourself!”

He raised his hand to his mouth in a mocking gasp while Xander, already half-turned away from the bed, froze.

Inigo’s pout looked uncharacteristically smug. “What? No answer? And you have the audacity to call me the rude one.”

The worst part was that Xander couldn’t even argue. He _had_ spied Inigo dancing in private the other day—and he hadn’t left.

It wasn’t a secret that Inigo danced. It was his talent, after all. And even if he hadn’t announced it that first day, he’d bashfully danced for the whole group the other day, right before he’d come down with the disease. Everyone had seen him then.

But that first time Xander had seen him—that had definitely been a private dance practice that Xander had accidentally stumbled upon. Xander shouldn’t have followed the sound of footsteps in the sand that day, caution be damned. He definitely should have left when he saw Inigo alone, barefooted and swaying near the water in what was clearly intended to be a private moment.

He hadn’t.

He’d assumed Inigo hadn’t known he was there. But apparently he’d been wrong about that too.

Swallowing, Xander turned back around. “If you knew I was there, why didn’t you say something?”

“Why didn’t _you_ say something?” Inigo countered.

They stared at each other; Xander’s hard gaze met Inigo’s slightly unfocused eyes.

“That was wrong of me,” he stiffly said. “I apologize.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, Mr. Guilt Complex.” Inigo waved him off. “Are you going to tell me the reason now, or do you want me to beg for it?”

Xander shook his head and made his way towards the door. “Goodbye, Inigo.”

“Guess I’ll have to tell everyone you’re some kind of pervert then,” Inigo sighed from the bed. Xander stiffened, his face hot, but he refused to give Inigo the satisfaction of looking at him. “Unless you have some other reason for watching me? No? How gross. I wonder how Camilla and Leo will react when they find out their big brother is no better than—”

Fists clenched, Xander slammed the door shut behind him. Hard. The echo of the slam reverberated down the hallway.

The door only partially muffled the rest of Inigo’s barbed words, but with the blood rushing in Xander’s hot ears, he thankfully couldn’t make out the rest. He quickly shuffled down the hall before he could hear any more, away from the patient rooms.

Gods. Xander was not a betting man, but he would have bet anything that Flora was having an easier time managing her two patients than Xander was having with just Inigo. He was by far the worst of the lot.

Inigo would recover, though. He’d recover, like Grima said he would, and if there was any mercy still left in the world, he’d chalk up any lingering memories from the last two days as some kind of strange fever dream. Or he’d desperately apologize like Xander had originally hoped he would.

Or, even if he did remember, he’d be too embarrassed to talk about anything he’d said in front of the others. That was what Xander hoped for the most.

If, when Inigo was healthy, he once more brought up the fact Xander had spied on him, then of course he’d apologize. He’d explain himself a little more, if he could. At the moment, he wasn’t sure he could articulate the strange emotions that had flitted through his chest when he’d watched Inigo dance on the sand, but he’d figure it out. The reasonable, healthy Inigo deserved that much.

But the sick Inigo, the one who just wanted to see him squirm? He didn’t need anything from Xander. He was just mean.

He’d come back to check up on Inigo later. Or maybe Flora would.

No. He couldn’t subject her to Inigo’s nonsense. He couldn’t risk Inigo letting slip Xander’s faux pas while Xander wasn’t there to call him out for any exaggerations either.

So he’d have to come back.

_Later_.

For now, Xander needed to go on a walk. Some fresh air sounded good right about now. He didn’t think he could look anyone in the eye at the moment.

* * *

Later, after the bodies had been discovered, after they’d realized Peri and Subaki had been murdered while Xander slept on, unaware, he would be grateful that fate hadn’t decided to take Leo away from him instead.

Finally recovered, Inigo would apologize, flustered, and say he hadn’t meant a single word of it at all. Lies, all of it, he’d claim. He wouldn’t bring up the spying again, and Xander would be too distracted to apologize like he’d meant.

Xander would absently say yes, of course, yes, he understood why Inigo had acted the way he did. They would part amicably, the result of the trial and Flora’s betrayal hanging over their heads like a heavy cloud.

And in his head, he would remember Inigo’s words— _Do you think you can actually do anything to protect your family, or are you just telling yourself that you can_ —and think there had been some truth to them after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Inigo is specifically the Ultimate Feroxi Dancer in this AU, as opposed to his mom, who was the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, which encompassed a lot more styles of dance. He's hoping to expand his repertoire over time. 
> 
> Despair Disease canonically makes people really weak, so Owain gained his mentioned black eye because he and Inigo did get into a fight, but Owain tripped and hurt himself while charging Inigo.
> 
> I made notes about other characters in this AU and who died in the first two trials/how, but I'll leave those details out for now unless someone specifically asks, just in case I ever write another snippet.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/)


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